Police increase number of officers on Lockerbie bombing inquiry

The number of police working on the inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing has been increased.

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said the increase was due to the recent change of regime in Libya.

Police investigating the bombing, which killed 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on December 21 1988, met Libyan defector Musa Kusa last April. Kusa is thought to have been an intelligence officer when the attack occurred.

Abdelbaset al Megrahi, the only man convicted of the atrocity was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and returned to Libya. Despite doctors’ claims that he had just three months to live, Megrahi is still alive today.

Libya’s National Transitional Council has said it would co-operate with Scottish prosecutors and police investigating the attack.

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary would not reveal how many officers are involved in the investigation, saying it was an “operational matter”.

On the 23rd anniversary of the bombing last month, Scotland’s most senior law officer vowed to bring the perpetrators of the atrocity to justice.

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said the idea that Megrahi acted alone was “risible”, and added that he would be “failing in his duty” if he did not find the people who were responsible for the bombing.